Turtle Destruction Wave
by KyuubiWindscar
Summary: In an attempt to both get Naruto out of the village to ease tension and advance the boy's skills, Sarutobi apprentices him to an old friend for three years after his first genin exam failure. 3 years later, he returns to a very different Konoha, even though the faces are familiar...NarutoXDBZ fusion
1. Chakra Focus

**A/N: **So, decided to update this version of chapter 1 and just run with the original plot. A few changes have been made, however, to make the story flow a little bit better.

**X-X-X**

**Chapter 1: Chakra Focus**

**X-X-X**

Sarutobi Hiruzen was known by many to be one of the wisest ninja to have ever lived. His advanced age was evidence of the fact, as many warriors his age were retired, and had been for a _very_ long time. So when he originally pitched the idea for Uzumaki Naruto, the village's hidden ace, to graduate early, even he hadn't questioned the idea until now.

While knowing that Naruto's basics were abysmal, lacking style, finesse, as well as tact, the boy's tremendous talent was still very evident from day one. The main reason was that Naruto's chakra levels were off the charts, as well as his physical stamina and recovery rate. Many, for better or for worse, shared the thought that Naruto was not a ninja that could start from the basics onward, but instead going with upper-level training initially, giving him tidbits on the basics as deemed necessary. Sadly, however, Naruto's ascent into the ranks early was halted by the **Bunshin no jutsu**. His inability to perform it gave many detractors a plausible example that the boy needed to remain in the academy, even if his **Henge no jutsu **was exemplary and his other skills could simply be drilled into perfection with more focused training.

However, in spite of the prevailing thoughts of many teachers, Hiruzen knew that Naruto's inability to perform the rudimentary clone technique was all the _more_ reason that he needed to be trained by specialists and/or ninja that possessed similar amounts of chakra. And his only solution lie in the form he held in his hand, one that would bypass the Academy's ruling and place Naruto into an apprenticeship. His only problems were the options of who he could place Naruto under.

_'Hmm...Kakashi would be no good, he's been disjointed and unfocused since Minato's death, even if he's still a top notch shinobi..Asuma's still off guarding the Fire Daimyo...Gai is Gai...I need to be in my office for extended periods of time, and Jiraiya won't have enough...down time...to properly train the boy. And then he still believes that he will excel at the academy. Who can I use?'_

The aged Hokage began looking over a multitude of files of jounin he felt would be capable to train the Uzumaki boy in chakra control. He'd even gone to promising chuunin, like one Yuuhi Kurenai, but he remembered what happened to the last 'irregular' student she'd taken on. The Kurama clan successor could've been something special. But he digressed as he continued to go over names before he sighed in defeat.

_'No one is skilled enough in enough areas that Naruto needs help in to give him help...Wait...maybe...' _thought Hiruzen as he. looked over a letter he'd received from an old friend who'd helped him in his taijutsu years ago.

He knew that the man had extraordinary chakra control and comparable reserves to match. The man's skills were the perfect complement to what Naruto needed to be trained in.

_'Hmm...but how do I get him to comply?'_

He looked down at his desk drawers for nearly a full minute before sighing heavily, and one could maybe make out a tear forming in the old man's eye as he opened the drawer. He took out a sheet of paper and wrote a long paragraph before signing it and pulling out the contents of the drawer. It was an orange colored book with a gold stamp on it. The old man placed the paper inside of the book before calling in his secretary. She entered and bowed before her village leader.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"Send a message to Uzumaki Naruto. He is to be in my office in three hours with all of his personal belongings packed. And also," he stated as he put the orange book inside of a small box before closing it,"have our fastest courier-nin sent out with this package within the next few moments. The address is on the box."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen sighed heavily, and had an almost pained expression set on his face. _'Naruto better appreciate this...that book is a one-of-a-kind treasure that no man could part with easily.'_

The Hokage cried silently in his office as his secretary closed the door with the package in tow...

******0o0o0**  


The courier ninja knocked on the door of a pink house on the middle of an island, the mainland of Hi no Kuni just visible from the edges of the island. It shared the same climate, but had the benefit of receiving cool ocean breezes as to make a nearly perfect utopia for a common man.

After a few seconds of checking his surroundings, the door opened to reveal an old man, comparable to the Hokage in years, with a bald head, a long white beard, sunglasses, and a palm tree shirt. The courier held out the box soon after the door was opened.

"Delivery for Muten Roshi."

The man known as Roshi signed the necessary paperwork and let the courier-nin go on his way. He eyed the box carefully, wondering if it was a trap of some sort. But then he shrugged his shoulders and took it inside his home.

His abode was of simple tastes, just a couch and a television set with limited broadcasting channels. He did have a VCR, and the videos surrounding it were _questionable_ to say the least. Once he reached the couch, he opened the box, revealing a simple book with a golden stamp over an orange cover. He picked it up, finding it to be something he never thought he would ever see in his life.

"I-i-it can't be! The legendary unreleased book from the Icha Icha series...Icha Icha Action..."

Indeed, being able to hold the most legendary and coveted pieces of the equally revered Jiraiya's masterpiece series. Icha Icha Action only had four copies made, and for good reason. Action was a masterpiece of writing, combining the simple smut of Jiraiya's popular erotica with the sense of adventure that one could only describe from years of experience. Legend has it his publisher didn't release it only because it was considered the 'perfect book' and would ruin profits, but still printed enough copies for himself and a few close friends as trophies.

The projected selling price of one, if proven to be the genuine article, was said to be greater than the total net worth of Gato Shipping Co.

Before he could marvel in it's glory, or even get to the first page of his new treasured object, a note fell out, with handwriting he immediately recognized, and had hoped to never see again.

_Dear Roshi,_

_I hope that this will be an adequate payment for a favor I need of you. We have a...special...academy student who has too much chakra for our ninjutsu at his level, and much too stamina to stay interested in our taijutsu forms. Your particular style, however, is perfect for him. With him will be the funds needed for his room and board as well as additional payment for your services._

_P.S. You will get the tape when I get confirmation that Naruto is under your tutelage._

_Sarutobi Hiruzen_

Roshi silently cursed, he knew that the old fart, himself aside, wouldn't just _give_ away such a jewel without withholding something.

_'Damn ninja...'_ he thought as he opened his closet, looking at a few relics from a past long forgotten. A black and white kung fu uniform, a blue wig, and a purple turtle shell with straps on the non-shell side. As he looked longingly at his possessions, his doorbell rang once more. He contemplated not answering, but he heard a voice that would forever haunt him in the years to come.

"HEY! ROSHI-SAN! HOKAGE-JIJI SAID THAT YOU'RE MY NEW SENSEI! SO OPEN UP!"

He looked at the book longingly, wondering if the risk he was taking would be worth the reward...

**0o0o0**

Naruto sat on the floor, surrounded by a few suitcases carrying things varying from clothes to projectile weapons to books about chakra and controlling it. In front of him was the man that the Hokage had told him was supposed to be his sensei for the next three years. The nine-year-old ninja hopeful didn't really see anything that the old man could do that would be really noteworthy.

"So, you're supposed to be a famous ninja or something?" said Naruto.

"I'm not a ninja, you young fool. I'm a martial artist and a hermit," replied Roshi. His eyes rolled behind his sunglasses. This kid had a lot of misconceptions that would need to be fixed before any meaningful change could occur. Even then, he _still_ seemed like a hopeless cause.

"Well, if you're not a ninja, how are you going to teach me ninjutsu? Only ninja know those."

Roshi chuckled slightly at the young boy's naivety. If there was even one more copy of Icha Icha Action in the world, or if he didn't know without a shadow of a doubt that old man Sarutobi had that tape in his possession still, Naruto would have a one way ticket back to his homeland, _fist class._ But, for whatever reason, Roshi decided to give the boy a preview of what he would eventually be learning during his tenure.

"No, you won't be learning ninjutsu. But you will be learning to use your chakra in a more...focused sense. I'll demonstrate."

As Roshi finished his sentence, chakra began to gather to his hand. It coalesced near the palm, where it began to compress into a ball. Once it reacjed a perfect sphere, which was less than a second later, it launched itself at Naruto, who promptly dodged it. It grazed him, leaving a burn on the floor where it landed. Naruto looked horrified that his teacher would use such a technique on him, while being secretly impressed at the sheer awesomeness of said technique.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!"

Roshi thought about his reply before smiling evilly. Suddenly, many upsides were showing themselves to training this boy. He summoned more chakra before responding, "Only if you can't dodge, **Renzoku Kikou Dan**!"(Continuous Energy Bullet)

With nothing but a smile as a warning, Naruto saw his new teacher send chakra blasts nearly twice the power of the one that nearly injured him minutes earlier, at a speed his eyes were too slow to follow. He managed to throw his clothes from out the folly before being hit with two blasts and the others destroyed nearly all of his other possessions.

The boy was now awkwardly lying in the midst of clothes, charred books, shrapnel from kunai and shuriken that had been destroyed, and bits and pieces of the leather suitcases he'd bought with all his money weeks before.

"What was that for?"

"A test. You pass. Pack up your things, we leave in an hour."

Naruto grumbled as he tried his best to ignore the stinging pain of partially burned bruises and the occasional sting from touching something too hot to pack up what was left of his clothes. While doing so, he noticed that his sensei was _giggling_. Like a schoolgirl, nonetheless. He turned to see exactly what the cause for this was, only to see a screen with multiple physically fit women exercising in incredibly tight spandex.

_'Damn pervert,'_ thought the boy as he shook his head and continued on his mission to finish packing…

**X-X-X**

**A/N: **I wanted to abandon this one. Really did. But, in the spirit of writing, I figured I couldn't allow this one to die. So I updated parts of the first chapter that didn't flow well and ended up deciding to continue the idea.


	2. Learning to Focus

**Chapter 2: Learning to Focus  
**

**X-X-X**

With his lungs feeling like hell had taken a vacation inside of them, his legs practically begging him to stop moving, and his arms desperately trying to remove themselves from his body, Naruto did one last push up before collapsing on the ground. He soon realized it was a bad idea when the fifty pound turtle shell slammed into his back as well.

"350. Impressive feat after your first month of training, although my other students got up to 400 after their first month," said Roshi in a dismissive tone.

Naruto wanted to reply, so badly it hurt his soul that he was simply too exhausted to properly form a rebuttal. After all this time of shooting at him with those weird explosive balls of chakra, making him run around a plateau with a fifty pound turtle shell on his back, then do various exercises _after_ his 'warmup', the young Jinchuuriki wished only to retaliate against his new sensei somehow. But, his wishes were for naught as he passed out from exhaustion after about seven seconds.

'_Hmm, he certainly works much harder than Krillin and Yamcha did when they were here. They stopped trying as hard during the running portion after about a week. This kid's idiocy may be what saves him in the end. Ah well, back to Icha Icha!'_ thought the perverted old man as he picked up his young charge and began the trek back home.

'_Although, I wonder how long it'll be before he actually asks to learn how to use Shouten...ah well. He's a long ways off from that anyway.'_

**0o0o0**

Seated cross-legged in front of his sensei of nearly a year, Naruto nearly groaned at the lecture that was soon to come. He'd already graduated the Academy, technically for all intents and purposes, and there couldn't have been any more reason for him to have to sit through another boring speech about virtue or honor or any of the other nonsense his teachers had been giving him for years.

"Today I will be adding two new wrinkles into your training, Naruto-kun. Because you seemed to master the **Kage Bunshin no jutsu** so quickly, I've decided that you're ready for more challenging lessons. First and foremost, we're going to fix that terrible mess of a form you call your taijutsu," lectured Roshi.

Naruto pouted and mumbled a few curses under his breath. He then said, "What does _that_ have to do with shadow clones?"

"Well, you need a sparring partner near your own skill level to begin with in order to master the forms at a reasonable speed. And besides, you'll still be punching the wooden post to build up striking power. Now, form a clone and begin start with the first kata I had you practice last week. The clone will block, and if he gets dispersed before the last blow, you have to do 400 pushups with the turtle shell," said the old master.

Naruto groaned before making the cross like hand seal and making a clone, the only ninjutsu he'd learned this entire time, and began working his way through the taijutsu form he'd learned.

The technique that Roshi taught him involved high speed punches and kicks, with many moves akin to basically throwing part of your body in a certain direction while maintaining some sense of control over it, intending to overwhelm an opponent with blows before they could possibly react. On the defensive side, 'blocking' was really a last resort, the body control used to attack was also supposed to be used to dodge blows in tight spaces, making it a highly effective technique of fighting.

However, about two minutes into his sparring session with himself, Naruto decided he'd had enough of the shenanigans of his new sensei, bursting his shadow clone in frustration.

"THAT'S IT! I'm DONE doing all of these useless forms and stuff! Either teach me something useful or else!" exclaimed the blond ninja-in-training.

"Or else what?" responded the dirty old man.

"Or…..I'll beat you to a pulp"

"Go ahead and try," said Roshi with a strange laugh punctuating the end of it.

Naruto, having abandoned all forms of sensibility at this point, charged his sensei with gusto. His plan, however, hadn't accounted for his first punch being deflected and having a punch planted directly into his gut. The Jinchuuriki fell to his knees in pain, clutching the probably bruised area in an attempt to soothe it.

"So, are you done playing or would you like to keep going?"

"I'm just getting started!"

Naruto attacked again with a flurry of punches, all of them easily dodged by Roshi. Somewhere in his mind, Naruto noted that while his sensei was old, probably as old as the Hokage was, his reflexes were outstanding. If this was how the man is after age and the degradation of skill from post retirement, he couldn't imagine what it would be like fighting against Roshi in his prime.

In the middle of his barrage, Naruto could almost hear his sensei chiding him with every missed blow. 'Too much force on the punch', 'Punch in anticipation, not reaction', 'Your footwork is absolutely dreadful', and similar phrases repeated themselves in his brain before he finally remembered something about blocking, taking a painful punch into the stomach before falling to his knees.

"As you can see...you aren't quite ready for even a _spar_ against an old man, let alone a real battle. Shall we resume your training, or are you still stuck on beating me into wood paste?" asked Roshi in the most sardonic way possible.

The 10 year old blond wanted to keep fighting. He wanted so desperately to land a decisive blow on the old man just to teach _him_ a lesson for once. But his logical side finally kicked in and he realized that if he'd took Roshi's criticisms more seriously, he would have fared much better than he had. As he was, he couldn't even hit the vacuum of air Roshi would leave when he dodged, and his other skills could use quite a bit of work as well.

"No...I...I'll go back to sparring, Roshi-sensei," said Naruto in a low tone, creating another clone and going through the taijutsu forms much more carefully and focused than before.

Roshi smiled a bit at the progress his student made, noting that the boy was much better at physical fighting when he put effort into fighting correctly as opposed to haphazardly throwing the hardest punches he can in an improvised fashion.

'_I was a bit unsure at first...but now I believe more than ever. Today is the day. And maybe one day, he'll learn the technique that makes me so deadly even after all these years...'_

**0o0o0**

Covered in dirt and sweat, in addition to being exhausted from all the previous forms of training, Naruto was happy to be sitting down for once today after the failed assault on his sensei and his commitment to diligence right afterward. He prepared himself mentally, however, as he knew Roshi wasn't going to just let him off for the rest of the day.

"Well, since you've worked so hard for the past few hours on your fighting skills, I think a little reward is in order. Instead of 'secondary conditioning', from now on, I'll be training you in **Chakra Shouten**."(Chakra Focus)

"What's that?" asked the blond shinobi.

"It is the technique I used on your first day here, as well as whenever I want to test your dodging reflexes and agility, and you learning it is the real reason why you're here, as opposed to just having a specialized taijutsu teacher in Konoha," responded the old man in a more sage-like tone.

Naruto sighed in relief, as the past few times any 'special' training involved either venturing out into the nearby town's hot springs to wait while Roshi peeped on women bathing, or training 'stealth' by surprising any common criminal on the run with his **Oiroke no jutsu**, and leaving before authorities could pick up on it.

"Well, that's a relief. Now, how do I do this….whatever you call it move of yours?"

"Well, first, you compress a small amount of chakra into your hand, hold it for a few seconds, and then let it explode all at once," said Roshi.

Naruto instantly began to gather as much chakra as he could into his palms. Using the training from tree and water walking, he compressed it at a single point in his palms while maintaining a steady flow of energy.

Then, he simply _let go_, for lack of a better term, and the wildly chaotic chakra mass exploded violently in Naruto's hand. A loud scream and string of curses was elicited from the blonde as he flew backwards several inches from his own attack backfiring.

"Good, even though you put too much into it, you got the first part down easy, kid!" said Roshi with faked excitement.

"The first part? But it looked nothing like yours from before! And no way I could try to throw that, I could barely keep it in my hands as long as that!"

"That portion of the technique is the easy part, because what you did is all it is! The first step to creating what we call a **Kikou**,(Energy Blast) which are the exploding energy spheres I throw at you is making the actual explosion part! Now, you need to learn to control it," responded the old bearded man.

"And how can I do that? It's impossible!"

"Not exactly. Now, for the next part of your training, I want you to gather your chakra in a 'shell' of sorts. Make a completely round sphere filled with nothing but air, like this," said Roshi before he instantly created a perfect sphere of chakra in his hands.

Naruto attempted to copy his sensei outright, but his first attempt ended in his sphere collapsing from too little chakra being gathered. His second attempt was foiled when he poured too much chakra into the technique, rendering him incapable of molding the energy correctly.

Roshi laughed a bit internally, as Naruto's struggling face was absolutely hilarious, but he could see that the boy had great potential, and would probably figure it out soon.

"Well, I'm going back to the house now, gotta finish my _reading_, hehehehe. You stay out here as long as you like, and we'll resume your training regimen when you finally get the hang of that," said the Turtle Hermit as he walked away from his young charge, who still was trying desperately to get the hang of his new technique.

**0o0o0**

After nearly a day and a half, Naruto finally got the hang of making the 'shell' on demand, as his first success had taken almost fifteen seconds to properly produce and that would do him no good in any sort of fight. So he practiced and practiced, only taking breaks for short naps and to grab food, until he could make one nearly instantly. As it was, his sphere wasn't _as_ flawless as Roshi's was, but the man knew this technique for a _very_ long time. If he wasn't that proficient, he'd be a failure to his own cause.

So, after his now afternoon laps around the plateau and relatively short taijutsu spar with a clone, Naruto was once again seated in front of his master, ready to learn the next step in his training.

"Now that you've mastered the shell, merely put the two steps together and launch it. It's quite simple, just form the shell, then start the first step and…"

Roshi's lecture was cut off when a bright blue orb hit him directly in the face, exploding on contact. Then another, and another. Naruto, now standing, smirked as he held another orb in his hand waiting to execute another blast, only to see his sensei completely unharmed, save for his sunglasses.

"Nice shot, kid."

Naruto immediately regretted his decision as he was bombarded with Kikou after Kikou, each one more deadly than the last as the now partially destroyed landscape told him. The blonde genin managed to dodge most of them, only to find his sensei in his face with his right hand over his left. Chakra began to gather into the old man's hands, and three layers of the explosive stage of a Kikou formed, and loosely compressed before firing itself in a wide range, knocking Naruto back several meters.

"What..was that?" asked Naruto as he picked himself off the floor.

"It's the next step, you didn't think you could master this in two days now did you?" asked the old hermit while somehow finding another pair of sunglasses to put on his face. "Now, lets see you try to form those a bit faster."

"No way! How do you expect me to do that?" answered Naruto with a pout.

Both of Roshi's hands shone brightly before two Kikous formed almost as fast as the smirk on his face had.

"It's either you match my **Renzoku Kikou Dan**, or you'll need to dodge it, Naruto."

It was the only warning he would receive before the old master rapidly sent a barrage of explosive chakra bombs at his genin apprentice. Naruto quickly retaliated with Kikou of his own, only to be overwhelmed by the raw amount of blasts his sensei was firing from his hands. Jumping to the side, the young Jinchuuriki noticed that his ordeal was far from over, as more explosive balls of chakra followed him.

'_How can he fire so many?'_ thought Naruto as he continued his escape.

'_C'mon kid, let's see what you're made of,_' thought Muten Roshi as he continued his barrage against his outmatched student.

To his credit, Naruto's speed and reaction time had increased greatly over his year of training, but it wasn't enough to get away from Roshi's unrelenting assault. Caught between a rock and a few hundred balls of explosive chakra, the blonde genin steeled himself in the face of near certain death.

'_There's no other way, I have to match these blasts,'_ thought Naruto as he focused chakra to his hands and formed the tell-tale shells of chakra. _'But how does he make so many? There has to be a trick to it...'_

Then, Naruto's memory brought him the images of what he'd seen only moments before. The use of multiple layers to increase the power of the blast had been the key to the technique the entire time!

"Form the shell, use it as a base," started Naruto as the attack was nearly upon him, "form the **Kikou** inside of those, and then fire at will! **Renzoku Kikou Dan**!"

In a fit of rage, Naruto launched chakra blast after chakra blast, each one targeting the blasts homing in on him, and nearly matched the unrelenting blasts that sought to injure him.

Nearly.

After the grand explosion and smoke resulting from it passed over, Roshi peered at the crater he'd created in the wastelands to see his young charge lying in the center. Bloody, and burned in most places, but most certainly alive if the telltale rise and fall of his chest had anything to say about it.

"Seems I was right, and you really had mastered it in but a couple days," said Muten Roshi as he walked over and lifted his student on his shoulders. "I guess I underestimated you, kid. Good job."

**OoOoO**

"...and the third member of my team, Videl, has requested a leave of absence due to emotional trauma," said Kakashi, finishing his report.

Hiruzen sighed a bit, mostly in relief, as he processed what one of his top jounin had just told him. Tazuna's request for a simple security detail should have been scrutinized more, but instead slipped through the cracks and nearly cost him his life as well as those of the shinobi guarding him. Luckily for all parties involved, the Demon of the Mist had suspected treachery and had his apprentice "kill" the old man to draw out Gato and slaughter the corrupt CEO. The thought of leaving two dangerous nukenin out there troubled the sage-like Hokage, but this unexpected development solved one of his bigger problems.

"Her request will be granted upon one condition: her replacement for the next six months will be Uzumaki Naruto."

Kakashi raised one of his eyebrows quizzically. "It was my understanding that Naruto was undergoing the Apprenticeship Program. Why stick him on a genin team?"

"While Naruto-kun has been training in relative solitude for the past three years, I think it would benefit him to place him on a team for a short period of time before his apprenticeship is over. He has to learn teamwork somehow," responded the Sandaime.

Kakashi tapped his chin in thought for a few moments. "Well, no use arguing over that. When does he start?"

"Today. As a matter of fact, I believe he's in the village right now, let's see what he's up to."

Both men stared into the scrying crystal ball, going over the village until they spotted a familiar golden haired genin…

**OoOoO**

It had occurred at some point between his master bringing him to the village and said master's unexpected departure that Konohagakure no Sato hadn't really changed much in three years. Same apprehensive stares, same stores, same Hokage monument, everything was a perfect snapshot of what it was before he left.

Well, minus the mayhem he'd caused himself.

Yawning a bit, Naruto noted that he hadn't changed much on his own front. The orange jumpsuit was a bit _too_ much of his personality to give up at this point, but he did keep it unzipped to show that his black shirt was replaced with another that had the kanji for 'turtle' in a circle on it. He'd been heavily against it, his attachment to the previous design as deep and unexplainable as his love for all things orange and ramen, but Roshi had insisted that the world would know that Naruto was a student of the Kame-sennin.

His unfocused walk eventually brought him to his intended destination, training ground seven, a full thirty minutes before he needed to be there. While he'd hoped to maybe rekindle the fires of his pranking habits, his new 'sensei' was supposed to issue him his hitai-ite. Even though he'd known he was a genin for the past three years, nothing felt right without the signature piece of of equipment.

While thinking of whether or not he'd wear it on his forehead, as most ninja did, or find some odd place for his symbol of allegiance, he noticed that someone else had joined him in the small training ground. Using his hands to block out the intense midday sun, he could make out pink hair on the figure approaching.

"Sakura-chan! Long time no see!"

Startling a bit at the call of her name, she noticed the person she was about to tell to get lost before her team meeting was none other than the long graduated Uzumaki Naruto. If his voice hadn't brought back her memory, the unsightly orange clothing he wore and his telltale blonde mop on his head would have a few seconds later.

Sakura, like all of her classmates and even their sensei Mizuki, had suspected that it was all a ploy to get the troublemaker out of the academy. Maybe even a cover for an expulsion due to Naruto somehow belonging to a clan as famous as the nearly extinct Uzumaki. No theories had any credence, however, due to the Apprenticeship Program being confirmed as legit from multiple sources afterward and one of the genin-hopefuls somehow catching a glimpse of the official document from the Hokage on the matter.

How he'd seen it, no one ever knew really.

Even though the mystery was, for all sakes, debunked, rumors spread like wildfire that even that was a cover for getting Naruto out of the ninja program forever. After all, few cared for the boy's future in the first place, if at all. In any case, for Sakura, it had been a good riddance.

Attempting to hide her contempt, Sakura responded, "Naruto, I know you haven't been here for a while, but this is a private training ground for my team. I have to ask you to leave."

"But I can't leave! Stupid Ero-Kame told me I have to be here to meet _my _new team and get my hitai-ite!"

"New team? Wait, no way they got a replacement so soon…"

Naruto almost responded to Sakura's silent inquiry with another question, but he felt the presence of yet another person in his vicinity and his expression hardened uncharacteristically. After a moment, a grin graced his visage, but his expression didn't lighten.

"So, Sasuke-teme is on your team too, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's eyes widened a bit before looking behind her and seeing her crush standing with his hands in his pockets and his eyes locked on Naruto. Before she could make a comment, the Uchiha scion walked by her to stand directly in front of his former rival.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? Heard you got expelled three years ago, haven't seen you since."

"I actually got to graduate a bit earlier. Special case, got put under a special teacher to help my ninjutsu a bunch. In case you were really wondering."

Naruto's smirk never vanished, while Sasuke's eyes narrowed a bit when his attempt to anger the blonde fell a bit flat. The idiot was still confident, but it seemed like it was founded on actual ability and not claims that he would be great one day from before.

"Special, huh? Figures they'd put you with someone to handle defective ninja."

Naruto closed his eyes and his smirk widened a bit at Sasuke's remarks. "If I'm 'defective', I'd hate to see what type of second-rate ninja like you the Academy's been letting graduate these past three years."

Unaware he was being goaded, or maybe just uncaring of the fact, Sasuke struck out at his rival with the swiftest kick he could muster. Normally, he wouldn't waste effort on weaklings but he wasn't sure if Naruto had _truly_ improved over his three year absence. You could never be too sure in those situations.

Much to his surprise, and chagrin, his kick was caught by the blonde genin. Not only that, he couldn't manage to break his leg free of Naruto's one handed hold in the position he was in.

"Now, now, you shouldn't attack an opponent before he's ready, Sasuke-teme. It's in bad taste."

"The only thing you'll be _tasting_, is the ground when I'm finished with you!" responded Sasuke as he adjusted his body to strike Naruto with his other leg.

Only to be caught mid-kick once more.

The last Uchiha curled himself into a ball and managed enough strength to break out of Naruto's hold. He then flipped himself upright, and stared down his opponent while activating his Sharingan in the process.

"Seems like you've got some nice moves. With the Sharingan, I'll see right through them now."

Naruto shrugged and yawned at Sasuke's declaration. "So your eyes turned red or whatever. Does that make you somehow stronger or faster?"

Angered at the taunt of his bloodline, Sasuke charged Naruto at full speed. He was a bit faster due to the adrenaline now pumping through his bloodstream, which allowed him to catch Naruto completely off guard with a strong punch to the jaw.

At least, he thought before Naruto dodged just before impact while leaving an afterimage of chakra behind.

'_What? How did he...'_

Naruto smirked as he watched Sasuke try and regain his balance. "You were able to follow my dodge after my **Zanz****ō****ken **(Afterimage Technique). Those eyes of yours are pretty good. Let's see what else they're capable of…"

"Actually, I think we've done enough sparring for one day, don't you Naruto?"

All three genin turned their heads to see Kakashi standing a few feet behind them. The famed jounin bookmarked the page of his book and placed it in his jacket, while tossing a hitai-ite in his other hand at the blonde.

"Sasuke, Sakura, as you both are probably familiar, this is Uzumaki Naruto. While our other friend Videl is dealing with her emotional trauma, Naruto will take her place as the third member of Team 7."

Unfortunately for Kakashi, the tension between the genin didn't dissipate as he'd hoped. Naruto had relaxed somewhat, but the other two were still wary of the blonde's presence.

'_Well, this should be interesting...'_

**X-X-X**

**A/N**: Does not seem like so many years since first update. But, thanks to a few sparks of inspiration, and my beta **Renohan**, I decided to tackle this again. Hope you all enjoyed it, and please review.


End file.
